Engineered panels are formed from raw materials which are pressed and heated to form a wood or wood-containing product. The raw materials may be, for example, strands, chips, wafers, fiber, flour, particles, or the like. Composite panels, such as oriented strandboard (OSB), flakeboard, waferboard or TimberStrand® laminated lumber, are generally comprised of bonding resin (adhesive), wax and wooden strands. These products are typically manufactured in several major stages, which include stranding, screening, drying, blending, forming, pressing, and finishing.
Once the engineered wood products (EWP) are formed, they are stacked. In an example, veneer stacking systems currently in use transport each veneer sheet to a bin. The veneer product is placed into the bins, and no special handling requirements for the material are required. Once the bin reaches a pre-determined height, it will lower and discharge the 4 foot by 8 foot sheets of veneer product. Because the veneer is uniform in dimension, no special handling devices are required. Also on the market are crane systems that transport the engineered wood products. These systems are cumbersome and slow.
Designers use custom software, such as that offered by Weyerhaeuser, to design a residential home structure using engineered wood products. When the structure is designed and the proper size engineered wood product members are identified, an electronic file is created for each piece of EWP for the structure that identifies the length, special cuts, and labeling. To increase efficiency of cutting, several structures are batched together in another Weyerhaeuser custom software package that optimizes the use of each board of EWP that the special pieces will be cut from. The traditional outfeed systems offered by known saw lines utilize a manual outfeed pull chain. Operators physically select and grasp the newly cut engineered wood products and pull them into a cart. There are many disadvantages with this system, the greatest of which are ergonomic and safety concerns. Thus, a need exists for a stacking system for wood products that is used in conjunction with specific handling requirements.